Why does this sound like old news ? About 10 days ago, I picked up a news items on this - "stores closing", perhaps, tried to figure out whether any particular mall REIT had an oversized exposure to the closings, came up with PEI - Pennsylvania Real Estate and shorted it.
It really does take a lot of credit to run a retail chain. The challenge is to manage credit so that it doesn't get excessive at the top of a credit cycle. The best way to do that is to put the breaks on store, employee and inventory expansion just as the expansion seems to be humming at high speed.
A good analogy is the way truckers have to drive a mountain. At the very top of the mountain, you have to slow the truck to a crawl, almost stopping. This is to avoid carrying any momentum into the downside of the mountain. That will cause 1n 18-wheeler's breaks to burn out, especially on a long, windy downslope like the Grapevine in Southern CA.
If you've ever seen those runaway truck gravel pits, they save lives but they break axles and cost big fines and towing charges.
Retailers hit the top of the Grapevine with too much debt. Now, they have to hit the gravel pits.
FDIC
Regulatory Relief
Guidance to Help Financial Institutions and to Facilitate Recovery in Areas of Southern Texas Affected by Hurricane Dolly FIL-72-2008
August 4, 2008
Summary: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has announced a series of steps intended to facilitate the rebuilding process in areas of southern Texas damaged by Hurricane Dolly and associated severe storms.
Aug. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Iran's military tested a new anti- ship weapon, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said as he repeated a warning that his forces could respond to any attack by closing the Strait of Hormuz, an oil transit point.
The weapon relies on technology that hasn't been used by other nations, Brigadier General Mohammad-Ali Ja'fari said today in comments carried by state-run news services including Press TV and the Islamic Republic News Agency. The weapon has a range of more than 300 kilometers (185 miles), IRNA said without giving details of the type of armament tested.
[snip]
Speculatively, that is a missile given the striking distance. The 300 km range sounds like the more bulk vanilla version, basically a sub-sonic Tomahawk lookalike. The one that should make folks sweaty is the Sizzler - that is an aircraft carrier killer (see the Wiki link & text below).
The Russian 3M-54 Klub is a multi-role missile system developed by the Novator Design Bureau(OKB-8). Its NATO reporting name is SS-N-27. Both submarine and surface ship launched versions exist. The system is designed to accept various warheads, allowing its use against surface and subsurface naval combatants along with static land targets. In one variant, the 3M-54E (Sizzler), the final stage makes a supersonic 'sprint' to its target, reducing the time the target's defense systems have to react. The 3M-54E1 subsonic missile is roughly comparable to both the American Tomahawk cruise missile and the ASROC missile but is smaller and has a shorter range.
Gonna be a lot more of them over the next couple of years.
Getting into a mood for the long haul, a lot of these are going to be emerging from Ch 11, restarting, sucking in the next crop of equity, and then going under again after private equity gets a skim off of retail.
Covered Bonds
FDIC Policy Statement on Covered Bonds FIL-73-2008
August 4, 2008
Summary: The FDIC has issued the attached final policy statement on the treatment of "covered bonds" if the issuing insured depository institution (IDI) is placed into FDIC receivership or conservatorship. The policy statement provides regulatory clarity by granting expedited access to covered bond collateral if the issuing institution fails and is placed into conservatorship or receivership and meets certain criteria. The FDIC guidance is intended to reduce market uncertainty on the treatment of covered bonds in a receivership or conservatorship, while allowing prudent development of the U.S. covered bond market. FDIC: FIL-73-2008: FDIC Policy Statement on Covered Bonds
Can't see the point of doing that, our government is going to spend enough for all of us. Happy day's until it has to be paid back then it's gonna kinda suck.
Aug. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Citigroup Inc. is closing a $400 million convertible arbitrage fund, the final step in winding down its $2 billion Tribeca Global Investments group, people familiar with the plans said.
Tribeca Convertible LP has been hurt by investor redemptions, according to the people, who declined to be identified because the decision isn't public
So we continue on the slow path to oblivion for much of the consumer-based economy.
At a local mall, when Hecht's went under, Macy's bought them and moved from one end of the mall to the other into the old Hecht's space (stupid waste of money that move was!) Boscov's replaced them; now, they'll probably vanish as well.
Oh, well - a big, looming, empty building is probably in the future of that mall, and it will be an accurate representation of the coming economy - a vast, hollow, empty shell.
I suppose I can pick up some good deals at the "going out of business sale
"The Russian 3M-54 Klub is a multi-role missile system developed by the Novator Design Bureau(OKB-8)."
Not that I know it for a fact, but I am extremely dubious about the Russians selling their most advanced weapons, or at least advanced marks, to anyone, especially the Iranians.
Energy, your link goes to the page on Sizzler steak house. Those Iranians are indeed clever if they plan to bait hungry sailors with USDA Prime...I'm sure it beats the mess hall grub.
Don't forget because of our expansion a lot of new truck drivers are out there..The cajon pass is similar with less gravel...
There is a double standard in our society that has contributed to the severity of this downturn.
If you are a blue-collar truck driver working for the man and you hit a gravel pit, you are automatically fired on the spot. Because you didn't take care of company property.
But if you are a big cheese white-collar exec, and you go crazy expanding on credit, you screwed company property even worse but you might get a bonus. And if the company goes BK, you still get to keep it.
The lack of accountability among white collar execs to take care of company property is a defining feature of decline-and-fall era U.S. biz culture.
Hi Son,
"As you know the state is now paying us 6.55 an hour, I am not sure how long this will last but that means I make 1048 a month. YIPPPEEEEEEEE. So while the legislature debates the budget this will be our pay. They also said we will be paid our regular wage at a later date. So for now they can guarantee the minimum. THANKS SO MUCH. So next month I may be struggling and will probably have to double your pay October, I owe one more payment on the car and then I was going to double your payments until I get you paid off. I know your saying not to worry but I do. I feel very sorry for everyone, I am lucky I have a house full of food, my utilities are paid until Oct or November depending on how much I utilize them, and I can make this. It is time for me to let this job go, I can not moonlight at any other nursing facility as it is a conflict of interest. So that is it. I have not panicked I am good at eating peanut butter sandwiches etc. LOL Just like old times. Water is very plentiful and free at work"
These assholes from the top to the bottom are getting me fired up..
To treat someone like this who helps the Ca. public by shutting down bad nursing homes and hospitals is just plain bulls@#t...
Ohhh and if anyone needs to know what nursing homes are safe to put your parents or such in hit me up here...
rant off, arnold lets go toe to toe, I have him on height and speed....
On Sunday, I visited a number of KMarts. They had a special deal running over the weekend (I think they called it Friends and Family, but anyone that mentioned it got to participate).
Everything in the store was 10% off (regular and clearance priced merchandise, but not sale items)... but only if you paid via Cash or Debit card. Not applicable with credit card payment.
I had to wonder if KMart (Sears Holdings ?) was trying to generate some immediate cash flow.
Entire cities in China being wiped off the face of the Earth by strange mass teleportation anomalies sending fundamental demand for oil spiraling downward today.
Personally I would like the market to trade up to flat into Aug 12 when the SEC will probably put short restrictions on the entire market. It will be the ultimate free market crash course when they find out they can't fight supply and demand. Some wannabe hotshots who follow oscillators say that the market will turn down after the 15th so it coincides some what.
Coming soon to CNBC, "Saving General Motors" or "Mission Impossible 4: The corporate shilling continues". GM will probably go bankrupt 2 months after this thing comes out. WTH
FDIC Friday PM, Bankrupt Mondays, Media Whore Wednesdays, Pump n' Dump Thursdays, and Lyin' Govt Statistics Friday AM. Go to Church Sunday. Wash, Rinse, Repeat. Occasional curveball Tuesdays.
"Energy, your link goes to the page on Sizzler steak house. Those Iranians are indeed clever if they plan to bait hungry sailors with USDA Prime...I'm sure it beats the mess hall grub."
Garbage collectors would inspect San Francisco residents' trash to make sure pizza crusts aren't mixed in with chip bags or wine bottles under a proposal by Mayor Gavin Newsom.
Newsom is a fool who thinks they will vote him into the Governor's office. Good luck. LA and the Central Valley including Sac will never go for him.
Thank you for clearing that up...
But the catch is his ET lifestyle that all the voters seem to watch now days might help...Sleeping with your best friends/campaing managers wife is about as low as you can go...
Although I'm all for the no plastic bags law in grocery stores in SF..Should be law across the board in the US. Oil is main component and it just scars our countryside with litter...
Man, if I'd just paid some record price for a building in NYC and made a bunch of comments about how prices only go up in NYC, I wouldn't like this guy.
If you want to understand the precarious state of the economy in the nation's largest city, one city official suggests picturing Wile E. Coyote frozen in midair just after skidding off a cliff.
The image of the hapless cartoon coyote illustrates how the city is suspended in a moment of bug-eyed worry as it starts to feel the downward tug of financial woes on Wall Street and other troubling economic trends.
"We still have a lot of stimulus from the years that were very good, the last couple of years -- our legs are still spinning in the air -- but we're starting to look down and see the ground below us," said Marcia Van Wagner, the city's deputy comptroller for budget.
Wile E mentions in the press? Is that a contrary indicator. Or a capitulation sign?
The city had long resisted the housing downturns plaguing other parts of the country, but Bloomberg warned recently that commercial real estate transfer taxes and mortgage recording taxes are down nearly 50 percent this year and residential sales of condos and co-ops have dropped by 20 percent
A good analogy is the way truckers have to drive a mountain. At the very top of the mountain, you have to slow the truck to a crawl, almost stopping. This is to avoid carrying any momentum into the downside of the mountain. That will cause 1n 18-wheeler's breaks to burn out, especially on a long, windy downslope like the Grapevine in Southern CA.
When I went to truck driving school a million years ago, we were taught to take the downgrade in the same gear we would have to take it on the way up--i.e. low gears. Never try shift on the way down, as the truck's would too quickly succumb to gravity, and you'd never find the sychros to get it back--the runaway ramp was the only solution, at that point.
But in the years since, compression braking ("Jakes") and better transmissions have taken a lot of the thinking out of driving--a pardigm shift, if you will.
This may have been what got retail (and homebuilding, and shipping, and ...)--an over reliance on the "new way" of doing things. The only ones left driving will be the old-timers who remember how to bring 80,000# down an 8%, 16 mile grade.
homedad43 writes:
IF there's a PPT, why in action before lunch?
Doggy Dog World writes:
Come on, PPT? Please.
one indication, not proof, between 11:21 and 11;42 am the dow rose almost 100 points (from 11,235 to 11,00333) on less than half the down volume during the previous hour and a half.
this on the heels of earlier report economy looses 50,00 jobs and today, inflation worst in 27 years. fundamentals?
oh yes here we have it, oil drops to 120 a barrel. ok guess that must be it.
Obama has this brilliant idea of emptying the SPR. This will bring down price in "Two Weeks". Then What Barry? I sold Oil at 100 but if they emptied the SPR I would buy it right up again before the US buys it up at a higher price.
If someone objects to sorting their garbage, they can pay extra and get it picked up by a private company, unsorted.
Thanks to the mayors budgeting, spending and sanctuary city policies there are plenty of people who will go through my trash for me, for free!
He tried a similar thing fining resident whose trash bins were in view from the streets but when it hit the rich they whined and the law was repealed. Expect the same thing for this policy. Newsom is sheltered and must have some little green elves giving policy advice. His greatest legacy will be the 80 story empty condo tower that sits beside the unfinished Bay bridge
Aug. 4 (Bloomberg) -- UBS AG's top U.S. legal official, David Aufhauser, quit as New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo investigates the bank's sale of auction-rate securities.
Aufhauser, general counsel for the investment bank and North America, will remain an adviser to the Zurich-based bank until Sept. 30, spokeswoman Sabine Woessner said in a telephone interview today. She declined to give a reason for his departure. Aufhauser, 57, wasn't immediately available to comment.
rich writes: The lack of accountability among white collar execs to take care of company property is a defining feature of decline-and-fall era U.S. biz culture.
Worth repeating. It also creates bizarre incentives near the end-of-life for many companies, as execs shoot for Hail-Mary solutions knowing they're safe if things fail, rather than taking painful shrinkage steps early that would entail admitting their earlier strategies were failures.
But in the years since, compression braking ("Jakes") and better transmissions have taken a lot of the thinking out of driving--a pardigm shift, if you will.
It's been eight years for me, and even with those it's still hard to kill downhill velocity. Smoked the brakes once and been behind a couple of guys with their brakes on fire, but never had to use the runaway truck ramp.
BTW- rich: you know there's a brake inspection area at the top of those grades before the steep downhills? You're supposed to pull off, do the air brake inspection and then when you re-enter out you're not at highway speeds.
A few years ago I had to make a quick trip from east Tenn to DC on Dec 23rd. The interstate was ALL trucks - as far as I could see ahead of me and behind me. If you wanted to drive on that road on that day you did 70. And this is thru some pretty tough spots.
In my little Ford Focus one miscue and I'd have been crushed.
These folks were going home for the holiday, nothing was gonna stop them. But it sure was scary for me as I had to stay up with them. And then ... there was the trip back (on the 24th) as I too wanted to get home.
Does someone need a dictionary? I'm so retarded I thought commenting and lurking were mutually exclusive. I am bitter about many things, but I find CR the only site on the Web that cheers me up.
those June consumer numbers were a bit ominous. Not unexpected, though.
Why does this sound like old news ? About 10 days ago, I picked up a news items on this - "stores closing", perhaps, tried to figure out whether any particular mall REIT had an oversized exposure to the closings, came up with PEI - Pennsylvania Real Estate and shorted it.
-K
The company filed for bankruptcy protection with seven affiliates after failing to refinance its debt, it said.
Might as well save that one to a command sequence because it will be used a lot. That and:
"The company filed for bankruptcy protection with after suppliers refused to extend further credit."
Wife and daughter shopped there yesterday; shame, since this is an old-line regional department store that managed to survive 'til now.
That said, for those of you vultures smacking lips at GGP, this is one of the anchors on one of the regional GGP malls.
Get out there and start spending, f*^#ers!!!!!!
We have gone from "merger Mondays" to "Bankrupt Mondays"
It really does take a lot of credit to run a retail chain. The challenge is to manage credit so that it doesn't get excessive at the top of a credit cycle. The best way to do that is to put the breaks on store, employee and inventory expansion just as the expansion seems to be humming at high speed.
A good analogy is the way truckers have to drive a mountain. At the very top of the mountain, you have to slow the truck to a crawl, almost stopping. This is to avoid carrying any momentum into the downside of the mountain. That will cause 1n 18-wheeler's breaks to burn out, especially on a long, windy downslope like the Grapevine in Southern CA.
If you've ever seen those runaway truck gravel pits, they save lives but they break axles and cost big fines and towing charges.
Retailers hit the top of the Grapevine with too much debt. Now, they have to hit the gravel pits.
We have gone from "merger Mondays" to "Bankrupt Mondays"
Hmmm. Bankrupt Mondays and Failure Fridays. How do we entertain ourselves for Tues Wed and Thurs?
"Grapevine in Southern CA"
I have seen several big rigs stuck in the gravel on my way down the grapevine.
I think I saw WCI in their this weekend...
I wonder how many new stores they opened during the prime housing bubble growth years?
They supposed to open a new store in Hanover, Pa. Wonder if the brakes will be placed on that?
Tuesday Tail Spins
Wednesday Wind ups
Thursday ?
rich starts if off big-time: Metaphor Monday.
FDIC
Regulatory Relief
Guidance to Help Financial Institutions and to Facilitate Recovery in Areas of Southern Texas Affected by Hurricane Dolly FIL-72-2008
August 4, 2008
Summary: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has announced a series of steps intended to facilitate the rebuilding process in areas of southern Texas damaged by Hurricane Dolly and associated severe storms.
FDIC: FIL-72-2008: Guidance to Help Financial Institutions and to Facilitate Recovery in Areas of Southern Texas Affected by Hurricane Dolly
OT current events
Iran Tests Anti-Ship Weapon, Repeats Stance on Hormuz (Update4)
By Camilla Hall
Aug. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Iran's military tested a new anti- ship weapon, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said as he repeated a warning that his forces could respond to any attack by closing the Strait of Hormuz, an oil transit point.
The weapon relies on technology that hasn't been used by other nations, Brigadier General Mohammad-Ali Ja'fari said today in comments carried by state-run news services including Press TV and the Islamic Republic News Agency. The weapon has a range of more than 300 kilometers (185 miles), IRNA said without giving details of the type of armament tested.
[snip]
Speculatively, that is a missile given the striking distance. The 300 km range sounds like the more bulk vanilla version, basically a sub-sonic Tomahawk lookalike. The one that should make folks sweaty is the Sizzler - that is an aircraft carrier killer (see the Wiki link & text below).
3M-54 Klub
The Russian 3M-54 Klub is a multi-role missile system developed by the Novator Design Bureau(OKB-8). Its NATO reporting name is SS-N-27. Both submarine and surface ship launched versions exist. The system is designed to accept various warheads, allowing its use against surface and subsurface naval combatants along with static land targets. In one variant, the 3M-54E (Sizzler), the final stage makes a supersonic 'sprint' to its target, reducing the time the target's defense systems have to react. The 3M-54E1 subsonic missile is roughly comparable to both the American Tomahawk cruise missile and the ASROC missile but is smaller and has a shorter range.
Just start calling 'em Tombstones.
Gonna be a lot more of them over the next couple of years.
Getting into a mood for the long haul, a lot of these are going to be emerging from Ch 11, restarting, sucking in the next crop of equity, and then going under again after private equity gets a skim off of retail.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
Why does Lampson remind me of Fast Eddie?
Someday this war's gonna end...
Covered Bonds
FDIC Policy Statement on Covered Bonds FIL-73-2008
August 4, 2008
Summary: The FDIC has issued the attached final policy statement on the treatment of "covered bonds" if the issuing insured depository institution (IDI) is placed into FDIC receivership or conservatorship. The policy statement provides regulatory clarity by granting expedited access to covered bond collateral if the issuing institution fails and is placed into conservatorship or receivership and meets certain criteria. The FDIC guidance is intended to reduce market uncertainty on the treatment of covered bonds in a receivership or conservatorship, while allowing prudent development of the U.S. covered bond market.
FDIC: FIL-73-2008: FDIC Policy Statement on Covered Bonds
Economics Latest News, Politics Breaking Stories, Market Top Headlines
Congrats to CR and Tanta for finishing 6th in the top economic blogs
what just happened?
C&C
The commodity money found a home in the SPX......
Look at EWZ
Ciao
MS
It's was just a hiccup. Mind you.
Any idea which of the stores are going to close? I haven't been able to find out...
got to be more than ewz....? i dont get it
Must be the oil price
"Get out there and start spending, f*^#ers!!!!!!"
Can't see the point of doing that, our government is going to spend enough for all of us. Happy day's until it has to be paid back then it's gonna kinda suck.
One store closing revealed: Boscov's will close at Harrisburg Mall | Breaking Midstate News with The Patriot-News -
Sometimes, metaphors reveal truth.
I'm saying...999 out of 1,000 truckers know how to drive a steep mountain.
But it looks like at least 10-20% of major retail chains didn't know how to navigate a severe credit cycle. Or forgot.
So, who's smarter...truckers or retailers?
O/T - Show me my cashola, please:
Aug. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Citigroup Inc. is closing a $400 million convertible arbitrage fund, the final step in winding down its $2 billion Tribeca Global Investments group, people familiar with the plans said.
Tribeca Convertible LP has been hurt by investor redemptions, according to the people, who declined to be identified because the decision isn't public
So we continue on the slow path to oblivion for much of the consumer-based economy.
At a local mall, when Hecht's went under, Macy's bought them and moved from one end of the mall to the other into the old Hecht's space (stupid waste of money that move was!) Boscov's replaced them; now, they'll probably vanish as well.
Oh, well - a big, looming, empty building is probably in the future of that mall, and it will be an accurate representation of the coming economy - a vast, hollow, empty shell.
I suppose I can pick up some good deals at the "going out of business sale
HMMMMMM. I Wonder what hedge fund blew up to drive Oil down $4 today?
Rich,
Don't forget because of our expansion a lot of new truck drivers are out there..The cajon pass is similar with less gravel...
Got gravel...
OT- The g/friends flat in Sunset district in SF appraised last week at 625K 2/1 with view 980 sf..still 100K above purchase price...
rose colored glassed for sale in SF...
Crude oil tanking in front of Fed meetup. Timely, if nothing else
"The Russian 3M-54 Klub is a multi-role missile system developed by the Novator Design Bureau(OKB-8)."
Not that I know it for a fact, but I am extremely dubious about the Russians selling their most advanced weapons, or at least advanced marks, to anyone, especially the Iranians.
Doggy Dog World writes:
Any idea which of the stores are going to close? I haven't been able to find out..
MARYLAND
Marley Station Mall, Glen Burnie
Owings Mills Mall, Owings Mills
White Marsh Mall, Baltimore
NEW JERSEY
Monmouth Mall, Eatontown
PENNSYLVANIA
Harrisburg East Mall, Harrisburg
Monroeville Mall, Monroeville
Montgomery Mall, North Wales
Oxford Valley Mall, Langhorne
South Hills Village Mall, Bethel Park
VIRGINIA
Piedmont Mall, Danville
It's not just EWZ....think of it as a proxy.....
Ciao
MS
Energy, your link goes to the page on Sizzler steak house. Those Iranians are indeed clever if they plan to bait hungry sailors with USDA Prime...I'm sure it beats the mess hall grub.
EWZ a proxy? Could you please elaborate? (sorry if I'm being dense!)
There is a double standard in our society that has contributed to the severity of this downturn.
If you are a blue-collar truck driver working for the man and you hit a gravel pit, you are automatically fired on the spot. Because you didn't take care of company property.
But if you are a big cheese white-collar exec, and you go crazy expanding on credit, you screwed company property even worse but you might get a bonus. And if the company goes BK, you still get to keep it.
The lack of accountability among white collar execs to take care of company property is a defining feature of decline-and-fall era U.S. biz culture.
ot surprising in the least, moneys tight gas cost a million dollars a gallon people can't spend
start by looking up just exactly what EWZ is.....
Ciao
MS
Mike:
If looking for a Thursday name, try "Turdsday".
@start by looking up just exactly what EWZ is.....
I know what EWZ is, I don't see why it would become a proxy home, though.
OT- My mother emailed me this
RE: Arnold's
game playing...
Hi Son,
"As you know the state is now paying us 6.55 an hour, I am not sure how long this will last but that means I make 1048 a month. YIPPPEEEEEEEE. So while the legislature debates the budget this will be our pay. They also said we will be paid our regular wage at a later date. So for now they can guarantee the minimum. THANKS SO MUCH. So next month I may be struggling and will probably have to double your pay October, I owe one more payment on the car and then I was going to double your payments until I get you paid off. I know your saying not to worry but I do. I feel very sorry for everyone, I am lucky I have a house full of food, my utilities are paid until Oct or November depending on how much I utilize them, and I can make this. It is time for me to let this job go, I can not moonlight at any other nursing facility as it is a conflict of interest. So that is it. I have not panicked I am good at eating peanut butter sandwiches etc. LOL Just like old times. Water is very plentiful and free at work"
These assholes from the top to the bottom are getting me fired up..
To treat someone like this who helps the Ca. public by shutting down bad nursing homes and hospitals is just plain bulls@#t...
Ohhh and if anyone needs to know what nursing homes are safe to put your parents or such in hit me up here...
rant off, arnold lets go toe to toe, I have him on height and speed....
Barley: Link for that closing info?
OT, but
PPT in full display before lunch for all to see
slightly OT,
On Sunday, I visited a number of KMarts. They had a special deal running over the weekend (I think they called it Friends and Family, but anyone that mentioned it got to participate).
Everything in the store was 10% off (regular and clearance priced merchandise, but not sale items)... but only if you paid via Cash or Debit card. Not applicable with credit card payment.
I had to wonder if KMart (Sears Holdings ?) was trying to generate some immediate cash flow.
Some details here, including the stores list: Boscov's files for bankruptcy, closes 10 stores - The York Daily Record
Entire cities in China being wiped off the face of the Earth by strange mass teleportation anomalies sending fundamental demand for oil spiraling downward today.
those June consumer numbers were a bit ominous. Not unexpected, though.
Especially ominous given the mass money-printing IRS helicopter drop campaign going on, apparently with no benefit in real terms.
"I don't see why it would become a proxy home, though."
Someone else help this poor child....
Ciao
MS
OT but couldn't resist sharing this peek at the new America...
S.F. mayor proposes fines for unsorted trash
Mandatory engine work to improve mileage, checking garbage...
Asshats.
All of them, just Asshats.
Thanks for the list, barley!
3M-54 Klub
Now that was strange - Ivan IS crafty!
Here is the correct Sizzler reference...
IF there's a PPT, why in action before lunch?
homedad-
He'll be the next governor for our state (unfortunately) did ya see his quickie wedding so that he actually has a wife to look proper?
Just goes to show you what good hair means to voters....
Ciao
MS
Come on, PPT? Please.
Not for this.
Personally I would like the market to trade up to flat into Aug 12 when the SEC will probably put short restrictions on the entire market. It will be the ultimate free market crash course when they find out they can't fight supply and demand. Some wannabe hotshots who follow oscillators say that the market will turn down after the 15th so it coincides some what.
Coming soon to CNBC, "Saving General Motors" or "Mission Impossible 4: The corporate shilling continues". GM will probably go bankrupt 2 months after this thing comes out. WTH
Somewhat OT but related:
Citi just announced losses on securitized credit card debt:
Citigroup Posts Loss on Credit-Card Securitizations (Update2) - Bloomberg.com
MS,
If I read you right, they're just moving money for roughly the same set a goods from one market to another (based on the top 50 holdings).
I don't understand what advantage that gives.
"real" nice, ms.
FDIC Friday PM, Bankrupt Mondays, Media Whore Wednesdays, Pump n' Dump Thursdays, and Lyin' Govt Statistics Friday AM. Go to Church Sunday. Wash, Rinse, Repeat. Occasional curveball Tuesdays.
"Energy, your link goes to the page on Sizzler steak house. Those Iranians are indeed clever if they plan to bait hungry sailors with USDA Prime...I'm sure it beats the mess hall grub."
Perhaps that was a Klub sandwich.
Garbage collectors would inspect San Francisco residents' trash to make sure pizza crusts aren't mixed in with chip bags or wine bottles under a proposal by Mayor Gavin Newsom.
Newsom is a fool who thinks they will vote him into the Governor's office. Good luck. LA and the Central Valley including Sac will never go for him.
On the garbage issue in SF...
If someone objects to sorting their garbage, they can pay extra and get it picked up by a private company, unsorted.
Tim,
Thank you for clearing that up...
But the catch is his ET lifestyle that all the voters seem to watch now days might help...Sleeping with your best friends/campaing managers wife is about as low as you can go...
Although I'm all for the no plastic bags law in grocery stores in SF..Should be law across the board in the US. Oil is main component and it just scars our countryside with litter...
Pavel,
Heh, with the bacon extra crispy!
Man, if I'd just paid some record price for a building in NYC and made a bunch of comments about how prices only go up in NYC, I wouldn't like this guy.
If you want to understand the precarious state of the economy in the nation's largest city, one city official suggests picturing Wile E. Coyote frozen in midair just after skidding off a cliff.
The image of the hapless cartoon coyote illustrates how the city is suspended in a moment of bug-eyed worry as it starts to feel the downward tug of financial woes on Wall Street and other troubling economic trends.
"We still have a lot of stimulus from the years that were very good, the last couple of years -- our legs are still spinning in the air -- but we're starting to look down and see the ground below us," said Marcia Van Wagner, the city's deputy comptroller for budget.
Wile E mentions in the press? Is that a contrary indicator. Or a capitulation sign?
One other quote from that article
The city had long resisted the housing downturns plaguing other parts of the country, but Bloomberg warned recently that commercial real estate transfer taxes and mortgage recording taxes are down nearly 50 percent this year and residential sales of condos and co-ops have dropped by 20 percent
A good analogy is the way truckers have to drive a mountain. At the very top of the mountain, you have to slow the truck to a crawl, almost stopping. This is to avoid carrying any momentum into the downside of the mountain. That will cause 1n 18-wheeler's breaks to burn out, especially on a long, windy downslope like the Grapevine in Southern CA.
When I went to truck driving school a million years ago, we were taught to take the downgrade in the same gear we would have to take it on the way up--i.e. low gears. Never try shift on the way down, as the truck's would too quickly succumb to gravity, and you'd never find the sychros to get it back--the runaway ramp was the only solution, at that point.
But in the years since, compression braking ("Jakes") and better transmissions have taken a lot of the thinking out of driving--a pardigm shift, if you will.
This may have been what got retail (and homebuilding, and shipping, and ...)--an over reliance on the "new way" of doing things. The only ones left driving will be the old-timers who remember how to bring 80,000# down an 8%, 16 mile grade.
homedad43 writes:
IF there's a PPT, why in action before lunch?
Doggy Dog World writes:
Come on, PPT? Please.
one indication, not proof, between 11:21 and 11;42 am the dow rose almost 100 points (from 11,235 to 11,00333) on less than half the down volume during the previous hour and a half.
this on the heels of earlier report economy looses 50,00 jobs and today, inflation worst in 27 years. fundamentals?
oh yes here we have it, oil drops to 120 a barrel. ok guess that must be it.
of course then there is the visible part of the PPT
1 TAF,
2 TSLF,
3 PDCF
but then again whos counting.
TAF, TSLF, PDCF Explained
for a link to the invisible part of the PPT see the link below
Obama has this brilliant idea of emptying the SPR. This will bring down price in "Two Weeks". Then What Barry? I sold Oil at 100 but if they emptied the SPR I would buy it right up again before the US buys it up at a higher price.
Si Sandito.....
Ciao
MS
Ed writes:
On the garbage issue in SF...
If someone objects to sorting their garbage, they can pay extra and get it picked up by a private company, unsorted.
Thanks to the mayors budgeting, spending and sanctuary city policies there are plenty of people who will go through my trash for me, for free!
He tried a similar thing fining resident whose trash bins were in view from the streets but when it hit the rich they whined and the law was repealed. Expect the same thing for this policy. Newsom is sheltered and must have some little green elves giving policy advice. His greatest legacy will be the 80 story empty condo tower that sits beside the unfinished Bay bridge
Privet Pavel,
Putin has locked up the Turkmen and Caspian gas. Iran is a link to provide gas to India and China.
The 'KLUB' may have come from India via Moscow.
Just a speculation.
Anyone notice how WM and WB aren't showing good tape today? Also Good volume on another low volume day. Trouble in commercial banks?
Not even a "Time with the family" sop?!
UBS Investment Bank Counsel David Aufhauser Resigns (Update1)
By Elena Logutenkova and Christine Harper
Aug. 4 (Bloomberg) -- UBS AG's top U.S. legal official, David Aufhauser, quit as New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo investigates the bank's sale of auction-rate securities.
Aufhauser, general counsel for the investment bank and North America, will remain an adviser to the Zurich-based bank until Sept. 30, spokeswoman Sabine Woessner said in a telephone interview today. She declined to give a reason for his departure. Aufhauser, 57, wasn't immediately available to comment.
[snip]
"I have a fortune in Google and staying long. This puppy is
going to 900 after the economic malaise is through."
Typical post on GOOG message board.
energyecon writes:
Not even a "Time with the family" sop?!
Look, look there must be a "left to pusue other opportunities" in there somewhere... maybe in Belarus?
rich writes: The lack of accountability among white collar execs to take care of company property is a defining feature of decline-and-fall era U.S. biz culture.
Worth repeating. It also creates bizarre incentives near the end-of-life for many companies, as execs shoot for Hail-Mary solutions knowing they're safe if things fail, rather than taking painful shrinkage steps early that would entail admitting their earlier strategies were failures.
homedad43 writes:
Mike:
If looking for a Thursday name, try "Turdsday".
homedad I love it! LOL
But in the years since, compression braking ("Jakes") and better transmissions have taken a lot of the thinking out of driving--a pardigm shift, if you will.
It's been eight years for me, and even with those it's still hard to kill downhill velocity. Smoked the brakes once and been behind a couple of guys with their brakes on fire, but never had to use the runaway truck ramp.
BTW- rich: you know there's a brake inspection area at the top of those grades before the steep downhills? You're supposed to pull off, do the air brake inspection and then when you re-enter out you're not at highway speeds.
Tim, Clinton used the oil reserves to lower prices. It worked.
That's better than a gas tax holiday, barf!
I have to take my hat off to those truckers.
A few years ago I had to make a quick trip from east Tenn to DC on Dec 23rd. The interstate was ALL trucks - as far as I could see ahead of me and behind me. If you wanted to drive on that road on that day you did 70. And this is thru some pretty tough spots.
In my little Ford Focus one miscue and I'd have been crushed.
These folks were going home for the holiday, nothing was gonna stop them. But it sure was scary for me as I had to stay up with them. And then ... there was the trip back (on the 24th) as I too wanted to get home.
All you commenters are the same old boring cynical tards who are always lurking here. Bitter losers, all of you.
Does someone need a dictionary? I'm so retarded I thought commenting and lurking were mutually exclusive. I am bitter about many things, but I find CR the only site on the Web that cheers me up.
What cheers you up?